Summer stress comes with heat, bugs and more Summertime brings welcome relief from the cold but also seasonal hazards. Employers should be sure employees working outdoors know how to identify and react to the more common hazards, especially ones that are potentially life-threatening. Here are some of the measures your supervisors and site foremen can take to ensure a safer outdoor worksite this summer: •Be alert to signs of heat stress in your employees. Symptoms include severe thirst, paleness, dizziness, weakness, muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting, headache and clammy skin. In hot weather, monitor the temperature and humidity throughout the day, and check hourly on your employees. Pay special attention to older workers, the overweight, people with chronic medical conditions, and those with the heaviest workloads. If heat stress isn’t treated, it can advance to heat stroke, which can be life-threatening. •Encourage workers to drink every 20 to 30 minutes throughout the day in hot weather. Plain or flavored water is best; avoid caffeine, sugary drinks and carbonated beverages. •If weather is extremely hot, postpone non-essential heavy work. Try to schedule the essential heavy work so it’s not during the hottest part of the day, or use tarps and canopies to create shaded areas. Give workers longer rest periods in the coolest area. •New workers need to be given about five to seven days to get used to working in high temperatures and humidity. Start them with more frequent and longer breaks, then gradually extend the work periods. •Hats, sunglasses and suntan lotion should be considered routine parts of workers’ protective gear when they’re working in the summer sun. Provide your supervisors with summer safety training so they can share the information with their outdoor workers. Staying safe at your summer job Your friends may think you’re lucky because you work outside in the summer. That may be true, but summer also brings special hazards. Follow these summer safety measures and then enjoy the fresh air and sunshine! •When the weather is scorching, drink plenty of water and non-caffeinated drinks throughout the day, and let your supervisor know if the heat is making you dizzy or nauseated. •If you have an allergy to bee stings and other insect venoms take it seriously. Carry a current EpiPen whenever outdoors in the summer. Avoid bright-colored clothing and sweet colognes and hairsprays, which attract these pests. •At best, mosquitoes and ticks are bothersome. At worst, they carry diseases that sometimes sicken and, in rare cases, even disable or kill. When possible, avoid working outside during dawn or dusk, peak times for these bugs to be on the scene. Cover up with long sleeves and pants tucked into boots. Wear an insect repellent containing DEET at a concentration of 20 to 25 percent. This provides protection for about five hours. If working in woods or tall grasses where ticks congregate, check frequently for ticks. Disease transmission is much less likely if ticks are removed within 48 hours of attaching. •If you make deliveries or do work in customers’ homes, remember, dogs are like people—they can become irritable in hot weather. If a dog threatens you, try to remain motionless until the dog leaves, then back away slowly until it is out of sight. If a dog is about to attack you, try to place something, like a backpack or trash can, between you and the animal. •Don’t wait until your skin looks fiery before taking precautions against sunburn. It can take from four to six hours after sun exposure to know the severity of a sunburn. Short-term, you can end up with a blistering, painful condition. Long-term, sunburn damages your skin and increases your risk of skin cancer. Instead, every two hours apply a suntan lotion with a rating of at least SPF 15; SPF 30 is better. Wear a shirt, a brimmed hat and sunglasses and, when possible, work in the shade during the mid-day hours. •Learn to identify poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac so you can avoid contact and the skin rash that may follow. Poison ivy has three pointed and glossy leaflets to a stem. Poison oak is similar but its three leaflets are lobed with rounded tips. Poison sumac has from seven to 13 leaflets, with all but a single end leaflet arranged in pairs on the stem. Jeffrey Williamson-Link, M.D., medical director of corporate health at Edward Hospital, contributed to this article in cooperation with Edward Hospital. Direct corporate health questions to jwilliamsonlink@edward.org.

Posted on Saturday, August 09, 2008 (Archive on Saturday, August 16, 2008) Posted by jstoltz  Contributed by jstoltz

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